Changes in usage patterns by customers of mobile wireless communications services, with an increased emphasis on smart phone-based data traffic as opposed to voice, have placed unprecedented demand upon underlying physical network infrastructures (e.g. cell sites) that support such services. Proliferation of smart phones and their use to carry out high volume/data-rate communications—including streaming video transmissions—has resulted in exponential growth in the volume of data flowing over wireless networks. The substantially increased data transmission volume via existing physical networks challenges the capabilities of the infrastructure to such a degree that choices often need to be made between desirable upgrades/remedial measures for many, if not all, cell sites and/or associated routers/servers. The increased volume of data communications presents a challenge for service providers who must ensure reliable mobile wireless service for most, if not all, users.
Moreover, users have become accustomed to receiving mobile wireless service at unprecedented levels of quality and reliability. The high degree of reliability achieved by mobile wireless services has resulted in many mobile wireless subscribers foregoing conventional landline service. Such subscribers rely heavily upon mobile wireless service to meet their communication needs. Given the increased reliance of subscribers, it is imperative for the underlying mobile wireless network infrastructure to be properly maintained. When parts of the mobile wireless network infrastructure are unable to adequately support subscriber needs at particular locations in the network, such parts (e.g., cell sites or portions thereof) must be identified. Thereafter, the cause(s) of the identified performance failure need to be identified, and solutions are proposed.
Mobile wireless network service providers possess limited resources for maintaining and improving their network infrastructure. As a consequence, mobile wireless network service providers are challenged to quickly and accurately identify, with a high level of confidence, changes (e.g. remedies and upgrades) to components that are most impactful on increasing an overall level of user satisfaction and quality of voice/data communication services rendered by the mobile wireless network as a whole.
A wide variety of network operation information is consulted by network maintenance engineers and technicians. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a type of network operation information used to measure the performance and capacity of wireless networks. Actual data throughput demand, and the mobile wireless network's ability to meet the data throughput demand are important Key Performance Indicator (KPI) types. Examples of other KPI types include: data sessions, transactions per unit time (e.g., second), disk usage, CPU usage, memory usage, data attempts, data sessions, data volume, and messages per unit time. Vast quantities of KPI data points are acquired for processing/analyzing during the course of a period of review for purposes of analyzing user data throughput demand on various mobile wireless network components and the mobile wireless network components' ability to meet such demand.
Network service providers do not have unlimited access to resources for addressing every need evidenced by acquired KPI's. A challenge to maintaining a mobile wireless data network, based upon monitored performance and capacity measurements, is to ensure proper allocation of limited resources for repairing and/or upgrading existing network infrastructure components. However, identifying points/causes of poor data transmission service at a particular part of a mobile wireless communication network is insufficient when a quantity of such points exceeds current resources that a network service provider can commit to address identified needs.
A first challenge, to conducting a meaningful analysis and proposing a beneficial long term response to identified problems/needs in a mobile wireless data network, is the massive volume of raw network performance (e.g., KPI) data acquired by various components of the mobile wireless network. During the course of an evaluation period, a mobile wireless data network management system acquires millions of potentially useful data points for processing. It would take years for such information to be evaluated manually. Therefore, some form of automated evaluation process is essential.
Another challenge involves determining relative importance of proposed remedial efforts to operation of the mobile wireless communications network as a whole. In an environment of limited resources for maintaining/improving network component operation, tools are needed to quickly and reliably compare the value of contemplated remedial/improvement measures applied to particular network components.